Barbara Gordon, Green Lantern of Gotham!
by DarknessWithinDarkness7
Summary: Barbara always possessed a strong will, it's what kept her going as Oracle when most people would have quit. But when a Green Lantern is murdered for its ring and that same ring arrives through her window the next day, she's Internal Affairs's prime suspect. And then Darkseid shows up! And everything seems to be going great for her. ...Suspiciously great. Sad Oneshot.


All alone on a friday night, Barbara Gordon watched the hot pocket rotate in her microwave.

She tried not to feel frustrated as she watched her meal spin around. She'd just gotten off the phone with a particularly dense amateur superhero, and she had plenty of built-up rage in her system over his inability to follow simple directions. She missed the days when she could go kick the crap out of some muggers or bank-robbers to feel better, but she didn't think she'd be kicking anyone any more.

Not when her legs were still useless, thanks to that monster.

She watched the hot pocket rotate some more, and tried not to think about the wheels on the wheelchair she was confined to. She wished she could get some sort of cool alien wheelchair with lasers and high-speed rotary grenade launchers modified to shoot nonlethal beanbags, one that could fly and teleport, but Batman told her such things didn't exist in this universe. No alien race with technology advanced enough to create those would ever allow one of their own to suffer such problems in the first place.

She felt angry. It had been a while, but she still felt angry. She'd been used like a common jumper cable by the Joker, to try and play her father like a fiddle. Did she not even have enough dignity to have her body permanently damaged by an adversary that specifically hated her as much as Bane hated Batman when he did the thing he was most known for, besides injecting himself with drugs?

She willed herself to stop thinking these things. She'd been through enough, she didn't want to add her own feelings into the mix. She was stronger than that. She had to be.

She'd remade her life as Oracle, everyone's favorite disembodied voice with an internet connection. Sure, an alien AI could probably do her job as well, but nothing in the universe could do it better than her.

Something crashed through her window. She instinctively tried to leap away, in case it was an explosion, and she only succeeded in shielding her face. A green glow burned from the something that floated towards her, and she grabbed a shotgun from her wall and pointed it at the thing. Hey, if she didn't have legs any more, she needed SOME way to destroy enemy robots.

When her eyes adjusted to the green glow's intensity, she dropped her shotgun in shock. This... wasn't an enemy robot.

"Barbara Gordon of Earth. You possess great Willpower." The ring droned, floating itself to her. She put it on and gasped as the feeling of raw energy mixed with her own willpower and grew, forming a green outfit over the pyjamas she'd been wearing. It was mostly black, with a green torso and green gloves. Her chest bore a black hole over her stomach and a Green Lantern symbol. She felt her face and found a mask shaped like one of her old Batarangs.

She slowly floated out of her wheelchair, legs dangling uselessly beneath her. She willed them to move, but they didn't. She focused and made big mechanical legs over her real legs, legs that wouldn't look out of place on a giant robot, and she moved them along with her legs.

She nervously floated down to the ground, landed, and... Took her first step.

She took another and another and grinned. She could walk again! ...Technically!

First, she decided to do something she hadn't been able to do in years. Something she'd missed more than anything.

She walked to the toilet, and used it alone. While standing and squatting. The Lantern outfit her clothes had turned into gained a flap just for the job, a flap that sealed up later.

Then she took a quick shower, standing up, without her wheelchair in there with her. Sure, she still had her ring and outfit on, but she didn't care. Her Lantern outfit was waterproof.

When that was done, she grabbed her scorching-hot hot pocket without feeling any pain from its heat and flew out of her window to do the OTHER thing she hadn't been able to do in years. Something ELSE she'd missed more than anything.

As luck would have it, she quickly found some mugger with a gun pointed at a married couple and their son.

Her old training took over and she ducked behind a rooftop. Her heart rate burned faster as she planned everything in her head, but she knew she wouldn't be able to be stealthy when her everything glowed so green. That gun in his hand wasn't something she trusted, and didn't Hal once say fearing things negated his power? So she had to move fast, before it was pointed at her. Just in case it brought back any memories of the time-

"Nope!" She shouted, jumping down and accelerating, kicking the guy with her giant robot legs. She blindsided the guy hard and knocked him into a wall, cracking it and most of his body. But she didn't do any damage that wouldn't heal fine in a prison hospital, even if he was screaming like he'd been stabbed. She hadn't wanted to kill or permanently injure him, that was not her Will, so her ring construct had struck the guy as hard as she could under these restrictions.

Still, that was some incredible force... She didn't think she'd ever seen even Superman hit someone that hard! He probably could, but he didn't.

"Oh my god..." The father whispered in horror.

"Thanks, Green Lantern!" The kid shouted with glee, then his glee gave way to confusion. "Wait, you're a hot girl. Did something happen to the last one?"

"No, he's fine, I'm..." Oracle began, trying to think of a cover story and ignore his comment about her hotness. Nobody called her hot when she was a disembodied voice. She decided to try and imitate Wonder Woman's voice. "I'm one of his friends from the Green Lantern core! We battled many great foes together on... Lombax 22475! I'm just visiting to see what his planet is like."

"Can you tell the one that became White Lantern that one time I said he's the coolest human one ever?" The kid said hopefully.

"Sure thing, kid." She said, and flew away.

That was something she'd missed. Saving lives, kicking bad guy butt, and being awesome. She could go back to being Oracle later.

Right now, Gotham had a new protector. A... Green Knight.

* * *

She flew on in search of more bad guys to beat up, unaware that in her own bedroom, two alien Green Lanterns appeared into the visible light spectrum.

"That ring's trail ends here." The thin girrafe-like alien said, eyes glowing.

"Some human's quarters? I knew it." The short red frog-like alien grumbled. "This planet's had a ton of Green Lanterns. Who here wouldn't want one of their own?"

"Well, SOMEBODY killed Kolin-Gar for his Ring, but I don't think it's the same crook who'd killed the last five Lanterns in the neighbouring sector. This ring got away this time, so it had more charge than the others. Which means he was killed quicker than the others! It doesn't fit the M.O.!" The Giraffe insisted.

"Which means he was stabbed in the back by one of these dumb humans." The Frog growled.

"Which means whoever just got this ring just became our prime suspect. If he isn't our Lantern-Killer, he's an opportunist that thought his kill would go unnoticed." His partner realized.

"Good thing they don't just give anyone these Internal Corps rings out to just anyone, huh?" The Frog asked, raising his fist to the sky and becoming invisible again.

His partner did the same, and a beeping sound was heard.

The Girrafe sighed. "You forgot to charge your battery." He stated.

"Hey, you're probably running on fumes too!" The Frog said, and both started to recite their oaths without a battery.

 _In bightest day, in blackest night_

 _No secrets shall escape our sight_

 _Let those that hide their twisted spite_

 _Beware our power, Green's Internal Light!_

* * *

Barbara flew through the skies, as free as a bird, until Darkseid showed up. Then she tried to beat Darkseid up, but she was defeated in one punch.

When she woke up, Gotham was a warzone. The Justice League had saved the day, and they were picking her up out of a crater.

"Did we win?" Barbara asked Superman, because Batman was nowhere to be seen.

"Yes. It takes guts to go toe-to-toe with someone like Darkseid. So... Would you like to be my new partner?" Superman asked.

"Would I?" Barbara asked happily.

"Would you?" Superman asked.

"Yes!" Barbara said and cried, hugging him. Finally, she could work with the greatest hero ever, and help protect the best city in America! No more stupid ugly Gotham with its evil and insane monster criminals!

The Frog and Giraffe aliens showed up, in glowing green auras. They took a raygun out of their pockets, and fired at Superman and the new Lantern, Barbara.

"Did you kill a Green Lantern for that ring?" The Frog asked.

"No." Barbara answered truthfully, her mind becoming hazy. Was that a truth ray?

"Do you know who did?"

"No."

"Do you have any clues that can lead us to who did?"

"No. But... I know Batman, and he can help you investigate."

"Great, we're relying on locals for help." The Giraffe groaned.

"Be polite, ya puzer!" The Frog shouted.

"I'll take you to him," Superman said, and the three flew away.

She was Superman's partner now.

She was so happy...

So, so happy...

So happy that the shock woke her up in her bedroom. Her legs were broken again, and there was no Lantern Ring, no Darkseid, and no offer to become Superman's new sidekick.

She'd been strong for so long, and shouldered the incredible, constant pain of her broken legs for so long...

She grabbed her pillow and cried into it softly, so she didn't wake her father or the neighbours. She didn't want to burden anyone with her pain, or her nightmares.

The nightmare of having hope, and losing it.


End file.
